Meet the maker – Fibre Mood

BACK INTO SEWING Putting fashion

We chat with Isabelle Finet and Teresa Bosteels from Fibre Mood who took control of their passion for designing stylish patterns for every Sewista

Tell us a little bit about who is behind the Fibre Mood pattern magazine and how it all started?

It started when I came up with the idea for La Maison Victor in 2012. I noticed a lot of young woman buying sewing machines, but missing out on modern sewing patterns and good explanations. Together with editor Sanoma, Teresa and I launched La Maison Victor magazine, and it was an instant success. In 2017, the publisher was selling off some of the magazine titles. We were afraid of loosing the magazine, so we asked to buy back the concept and title via a management buy out but unfortunately the answer was no, and it was sold off.

Out of our grief came the strength to start over! We both felt our story wasn’t finished and we were lucky enough that the team behind La Maison Victor followed us! It was an incredible time, pioneering with no money. We had more than 60 people helping us with their professional skills and experience to make Fibre Mood real!

Fibre Mood is now 18 months on and we’re on ninth edition! We now have more than 38,000 followers on Instagram, welcome over 50,000 people to our community and have subscribers in 27 countries.

It has been such an incredible adventure, and we’re so so grateful that so many people were so brave to help our crazy story come true! Teresa and I say it almost every day that we’re so thankful we have such a great team behind us.

Who designs and influences the sewing patterns?

That’s Teresa! She’s fascinated by colours, forms and materials, and absorbs literally everything! She’s researching all the time, and watching what’s happening on the streets, in the cities, on the catwalks, and in the world! What’s trending and what is most likely to become a trend? She loves to design patterns for clothes that are within everyone’s reach, that were too exclusive, too expensive, or only from big designers.

How often is a new issue released?

Every two to three months, which equates to five Fibre Mood pattern magazines a year. We publish in Dutch, French, English, German and Spanish.

What makes you sewing patterns different from other indie patterns?

We focus on urban street style, contemporary and sometimes more classics but we always add a twist! We always take into account different body types offering so every woman can build her own stylish wardrobe based on her body shape. Every

pattern is high quality with lots of technical information, as well as clear instructions with drawings, and if needed videos. We like to give style advice for ever body shape, plus tips how to personalise the pattern and to adjust it. It’s also important to us to show our patterns on different models and different ages etc.

Another big difference is how we interact with our community of Sewistas. There really is an active interchange between everybody. Sometimes I see a pattern made by a sewist and I immediately think hey, I want to make it myself!

What sort of sewer is the pattern brand aimed at?

With every edition, we have patterns from beginners to experts. We try to convince beginners to start with Fibre Mood since our explanations are very simple to understand, but at the same time, we help sewers get to the technical level! More experienced sewers can learn how to finish garment more neatly than real beginners.

Our patterns are from size 32-58 (EUR) or 4-30 (UK) or 0-26 (US). Some models with a loose or oversized fit go from XS –XXXL, which includes 32-60 (EUR)/ 4-32 (UK)/ 0-28 (US). Children’s patterns go from two to 14 years old, and baby’s from one to eight months. We have patterns for men from XL-XXL

Can you buy patterns separately from the magazine?

Yes! Every pattern is available as a pdf pattern. You can buy the whole magazine, or for those who just don’t like to trace and wants seam allowances included, they can just print the pdf pattern at home, or in the copy shop.

We also have paper patterns from our evergreens. These are patterns that are very popular. We print every pattern piece next to the other so it’s easy to trace. These are becoming very popular.

I prefer the magazine for the images and I like to print the pdf patterns with seam allowances. With two toddlers at home, this gives me the most comfort.

Tell us a bit about how sewists can get involved with the Fibre Mood community?

Yes, indeed. Fibre Mood built a strong community in very short time and to be honest, I’m very proud of every single sewist! It is up to each sewist how much they want to be involved. Some are very active, and share everything they make, while others are shy, and just see what others are making and get inspired. Personally I’m shy, so you will rarely see something from me, although I’m always sewing and wearing proudly clothes from Fibre Mood!

We organise a lot of competitions where connection is very important. At the moment, we are organizing the Social Sew Along on Instagram Live in five languages. People are just so lovely and happy to share their passion with others in the same situation. Very soon, we will start the Dress My Window campaign where we ask sewers to collaborate with their shop owners, and win a year’s subscription while the shop owner receives the original clothes of Fibre Mood, just buy making a very nice window with a dress of Fibre Mood.

Another campaign is the Sewista World Tour this summer. Since nobody can go on holiday, we invite sewers worldwide to show an interesting spot in their neighbourhood, of course wearing clothes from Fibre Mood and post it on our website. I like the humour, the joy and the passion in our community!